How to get Win 7 on FAT32?

[Stanem]

Hi all. Have some problem with a pc I got, it's an industrial PC. It's based on a Intel Atom Z510, problem is the BIOS who only accept FAT32... I've seen them running on Win 7 but how? Tried to install Win 7 but it demands NTFS... to make thing worse, there's no SATA - only SD, CF and USB connections. Anyone got an idea? Could use Win XP also but I have no bootable CD disk left and then there is the problem with authentication nowadays.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: How to get Win 7 on FAT32?

Well XP is abandoned by microsoft nowadays so you could, erm... burn a disc.

[yuhong]

Re: How to get Win 7 on FAT32?

Hi all. Have some problem with a pc I got, it's an industrial PC. It's based on a Intel Atom Z510, problem is the BIOS who only accept FAT32... I've seen them running on Win 7 but how? Tried to install Win 7 but it demands NTFS... to make thing worse, there's no SATA - only SD, CF and USB connections. Anyone got an idea? Could use Win XP also but I have no bootable CD disk left and then there is the problem with authentication nowadays.

Unless you are talking about UEFI, the BIOS should only load the boot sector. With UEFI you use a separate FAT EFI system partition.

[Stanem]

Re: How to get Win 7 on FAT32?

Well XP is abandoned by microsoft nowadays so you could, erm... burn a disc.

Well, I could but I haven't got a bootable CD left in the house - even tried the web but all .iso I got wasn't bootable (according to Rufus)... I tried different combinations last days with no luck, came so far with Win 7 that I got to choose HDD but there is no HDD and it doesn't accept USB-disks as installation media so now I run out of ideas... could of course use Linux but the software I want to use is Windows only.

[yuhong]

Re: How to get Win 7 on FAT32?

Well, I could but I haven't got a bootable CD left in the house - even tried the web but all .iso I got wasn't bootable (according to Rufus)... I tried different combinations last days with no luck, came so far with Win 7 that I got to choose HDD but there is no HDD and it doesn't accept USB-disks as installation media so now I run out of ideas... could of course use Linux but the software I want to use is Windows only.

Seems that it is targeted at embedded apps that would run embedded edition of Windows.

[stj]

Re: How to get Win 7 on FAT32?

CF-cards are IDE interface.

[Stanem]

Re: How to get Win 7 on FAT32?

CF-cards are IDE interface.

Aaaah, didn't know that. Will buy one at once and try, thanks for the info!

[Per Hansson]

Re: How to get Win 7 on FAT32?

Start install.
Press Shift + F10
diskpart
list disk
select disk X (replace X with the disk you want to install on listed above)
clean (will erase all data on disk, no questions asked so be careful and select the right one!)
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=fat32
exit

Now resume installation as normal, it should install without asking to format first...

[Stanem]

Re: How to get Win 7 on FAT32?

Start install.
Press Shift + F10
diskpart
list disk
select disk X (replace X with the disk you want to install on listed above)
clean (will erase all data on disk, no questions asked so be careful and select the right one!)
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=fat32
exit

Now resume installation as normal, it should install without asking to format first...

That one I haven't seen before being done in installation phase so I must ask where in the installation I should do this? Will definitely try this when I get the CF-card.

[Stanem]

Re: How to get Win 7 on FAT32?

OK, now I got the CF-card and tried to install Win7 on it but with no luck. I did diskpart as described, that worked but Windows doesn't find any disk. When looking in BIOS the CF-card is listed as an ATA-disk hdd, also when looking in diskpart it is listed as ATA-disk but installation doesn't find it. Any idea what to do?

[yuhong]

Re: How to get Win 7 on FAT32?

OK, now I got the CF-card and tried to install Win7 on it but with no luck. I did diskpart as described, that worked but Windows doesn't find any disk. When looking in BIOS the CF-card is listed as an ATA-disk hdd, also when looking in diskpart it is listed as ATA-disk but installation doesn't find it. Any idea what to do?

http://www.os2museum.com/wp/removable-cf-card-or-not/

[ddscentral]

Re: How to get Win 7 on FAT32?

Try using ImageX program to unpack install.wim from Windows 7 installation DVD to CF card. That's basically what the installer does.
However, using CF card as primary HDD will be very slow, unless you got a high-end card.

It's possible to convert Windows 7 (full OS, not just PE) to USB using WinToUsb program, but pagefile won't work in such configuration.

[Per Hansson]

Re: How to get Win 7 on FAT32?

The following thread might contain some useful info about switching a CF card from removable to fixed disk type:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=48963

[Stanem]

Re: How to get Win 7 on FAT32?

Thanks for all help but now I have almost given up this idea with CF-card (new Sandisk Ultra)... I have tried both ImageX and WinToUsb on another PC with Win7 and Usb to CF converter and everything is OK but when putting in CF in the industrial PC it doesn't boot. I've tried with Hirens Boot Usb and installed XP - everything OK but doesn't boot... tried with Win 7,8,10 by booting up from a CD/DVD-player I converted to Usb - works OK but doesn't boot. When I say it does´t boot I mean that the PC starts up and tells that it doesn't find any boot disk. In desperation I also tried with Linux because I read that GRUB boot loader should work - well it didn't. So as you can see, I've tried a lot of different versions but with no luck so I've started to look for alternatives for my project. I can say that I tried the CF in another computer - booted without any problem.

[stj]

Re: How to get Win 7 on FAT32?

maybe a bios update would help - got a link to the makers site?

[Stanem]

Re: How to get Win 7 on FAT32?

maybe a bios update would help - got a link to the makers site?

Yes, I have checked that and I have the latest BIOS installed (from last year)

[hasefroch]

Re: How to get Win 7 on FAT32?

Looks like this BIOS is somewhat crippled.
First of all, boot hiren's mini xp and from there, run BootICE (Hirens menu -> Partition/Boot/MBR -> BootICE) and verify that the CF have correct MBR and PBR settings according with the windows version installed.
If everything is ok, try this:
Boot again with hirens, and select within boot options the item "boot from partitions..."
From there, you can"force" the boot from (almost) any disk connected. You have many options; if any of them boot windows from the CF, you have the workaround of prepare a small sd card or pendrive with only the boot code to launch the CF (something like the chainload in Linux).
Used this in a crappy sony vaio who refused to boot when replaced the original IDE HDD with an adapter and a CF. Ended up using an old memory stick of 64Mb whose only function was redirect the booting to the CF.
All of this was with windows xp, YMMV with newer versions.

[Per Hansson]

Re: How to get Win 7 on FAT32?

Ok, with a problem like that the following post might provide useful as well:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...633#post106633

[Umbreon]

Re: How to get Win 7 on FAT32?

I just did the same thing; I wanted to format a 500GB external USB drive to Fat32 in Windows 7, attempted DOS formatting and it started out fine, started formatting etc., but then I woke up the next day and it ended up showing me the 'volume is too big for fat32' notice, and didn't end up formatting it. So I tried the SwissKnife app (in Win7). It said right away that there were compatibility problems with it in Win7, but not one ot heed warnings, I went ahead and looked anyway, and it doesn't show the drives. So I went ahead with Acronis Disk DirectorDisk Director and it worked perfect.

It literally took about 5 seconds to format 500GB to Fat32, with no complaints. It didn't do a low-level format, and/or overwriting multiple time format, if anyone is worried about the FBI finding their tax documents, or naked pictures of <insert name here>, but for your standard formatting it worked a charm.